A Bungie job listing for a PC Compatibility Tester leads to speculation that this may tip off plans for a PC edition of Destiny, Bungie's first-person shooter (thanks nin). They've never ruled out a Windows version of the game, though we haven't seen this officially discussed in some time. Here's part of the help wanted ad:

Testers at Bungie are grouped into teams, responsible for ensuring that an area of the game is ready to ship. The PC Compatibility Tester will evaluate PC hardware-specific features and ensure various systems work together across multiple PC configurations to provide a great experience. This is a challenging area to test, so we are only looking for the most resilient and technically minded testers. If you love solving new problems on a continuous basis with an eye for detail, you will love PC Compatibility Test at Bungie.

Steam News announces the release of The Flock, an asymmetrical multiplayer game for Windows noted for its plan to end when a predetermined number of players have died in the game. Word is: "The Flock is an asymmetrical multiplayer thriller, where you get to play as one of the agile monsters that make up the Flock. Hunt down and attack the Carrier to take its place. Survive and fend off the terrifying Flock with the coveted Light Artifact."

A recent 8-K SEC Filing by Take-Two Interactive Software has the latest eye-opening sales figures for the Grand Theft Auto series, which the document refers to as the "industry's most iconic and critically acclaimed brand (thanks Eurogamer). Word is:

Series has sold-in over 220 million units, including over 54 million units of Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V reached $1 billion in retail sales faster than any entertainment release in history

A post from Triumph Studios announces mod support is on the way for Age of Wonders III, their turn-based strategy sequel (thanks PC Invasion). Here's the plan:

Have you ever wondered how AoW3 would be if it just had this awesome unit, or that epic spell? Well, it’s time to put on your creative hat and find out!

We’re happy to announce modding support for AoW3 is in the works! We plan to release modding support as part of our next patch, so the wait shouldn’t be too long. We are still busy adding features, hunting bugs and polishing it all up for you. But overall things are shaping up nicely and we’re excited to see what kinds of creative and crazy things you guys and girls will come up with.

You’ll be able to overhaul game balance, add new specializations or even a brand new units! These mods can then be shared with the global player base, via Steam Workshop or the mod site of your preference. You won’t be able to do all-the-things – e.g. change core gameplay, models or textures – but if its something our designers can do it, you’ll can do it too. Mods can be enabled and disabled in the launcher – so you can pick and choose which you’ll use – and can even be used in multiplayer.

We’ll tell you all more about the features and limitations in upcoming updates, so stay tuned!

The Sword Coast Legends Twitch channel has the recording of a session where design director Tim Schwalk and community manager Ash Sevilla livestreamed a bit of the single-player campaign from Sword Coast Legends, n-space's upcoming D&D role-playing game. Some of what they show off in the video is what they will be showing off when they bring the game to PAX Prime next weekend. Thanks Dark.

• Kerbal Space Program on Steam. Save 33%.
• Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings on Steam. Save 15%.
• VERSUS: The Lost Ones on Steam.
• Save 25% on

• Stellaris Fan Q&A – Strong Influences, New Directions - Space Game Junkie.

• Fan Favorites and Rising Stars to Clash in August Heroes of the Storm Open.
• Riot’s Punishment For Ranked League Of Legends Players Seems Harsh.

• This Week On Xbox – August 21, 2015.
• Never Alone Arctic Collection is Now Available for Xbox One.
• Pure Hold’em Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• What It's Like To Be The Community Manager For The 'Worst PS4 Game Ever'. Thanks nin.

• The Five Biggest Problems With Twitch.

• Samsung, MIT say their solid-state batteries could last a lifetime. Thanks HARDOCP.
• NASA touts real technologies highlighted in imminent 'The Martian' flick.

• Microsoft has no plans to tell us what’s in Windows patches.

• Google ordered to remove links to stories about Google removing links to stories.
• Comcast reveals subscriber in online comments case. Thanks HARDOCP.

• John Smedley Departs Daybreak After Stepping Down As President, Starts New Company…
• Riot debut free web game alongside new arcade skins for League of Legends…

Link of the Day: Half-Line Miami by stabberthomas. "A video game mashup between Half-Life 2 and Hotline Miami." Thanks DSOGaming.

Some requests for refunds from Star Citizen backers are being granted by Cloud Imperium Games, reports Polygon, noting a recent a recent survey suggested there were a surprising number of customers looking to get their money back (including quotes from our own KXmode about his refund). They spoke about this during a conversation with Chris Roberts. "We don't publicize it, but when people reach out to us and talk to us in a rational manner, in most cases we've refunded them," Roberts says. "We don't want people to be part of the project if they're not happy." There are no public announcements or guarantees attached to this reimbursement policy, which remains completely at the company's discretion, as they are not obligated to make refunds.

The article recaps the slipped delivery dates for the space simulation as the scope of the game's design has grown along with its crowdfunded budget, discussing how this has has contributed to whatever degree of discontent this all represents. Here's more:

A spokesperson for Cloud Imperium said that a total of 1,269 refunds have so far been given out, with 93 refunds since the beginning of July. Roberts declined to say what percentage of refund applications are granted.

"If there are cases where people are really upset, or facing personal hardships, on a case by case basis we take a look and we refund," he said. "We don't want to keep people around. We don't want to fight with them."

WBIE is still working on repairing the Windows edition of Batman: Arkham Knight, though it sounds as if the patch to fix things may not arrive this month as promised, as a new update on the situation says they "are now putting the first interim patch into testing," and that this will be released "in the next few weeks," provided all goes well (thanks PC Invasion). The PC edition of this stealth/action sequel turned out to be so broken when it was released two months ago that sales of the game were suspended until things could be fixed. The post includes a list of what to expect from the patch:

Below are some of the major fixes and improvements you can expect in the upcoming patch:

• Reduced frame rate hitches
• Optimized system memory and VRAM usage
• Improved performance on all GPUs (requires the latest drivers)
  • Min Spec AMD GPU is once again the Radeon HD 7870 2GB
• More Robust In-Game Settings, including:
  • Added the ability to change settings for Max FPS to 30/60/90
  • Added toggles for Motion Blur, Chromatic Aberration, and Film Grain
  • Added a “High” Texture Resolution value
  • Added Texture Filtering option
  • Added an Adaptive V-Sync option (NVIDIA only)
  • Added VRAM Usage Meter
  • Added Mouse Sensitivity Slider & Mouse Smoothing Option
• Fixed low resolution texture bugs
• Fixed hitches when running on mechanical hard drives (HDD)

While our first priority is fixing the issues listed above, the team is continuing to work on the following:

• Skipping the boot up splash screens
• DLC/Season Pass content
• Additional updates such as Photo Mode

Battle.net announces that they are getting set to start doling out gold refunds to customers who double-purchased items in Heroes of the Storm when buying bundles as they promised they would when they recently announced the addition of dynamic bundles to the MOBA. They also announce that the Diablo-themed Battlefield of Eternity map is out of the rotation until they can address an issue that caused it to sometimes crash the game. Here's word on that:

We've discovered an issue with Battlefield of Eternity that can cause games to crash, and have removed this Battleground from the matchmaking pool until we can roll out a fix.

We're investigating the issue now, and hope to have a fix released as soon as possible. For the time being, you can still play on Battlefield of Eternity using Custom Games, but it has been removed from Versus A.I., Quick Match, and Ranked.

We'll let you know just as soon as Battlefield of Eternity is available in matchmaking queues once more.

The Dota 2 website announces an update to Dota 2 to reflect the outcome of this year's International tournament, also offering instructions for Compendium participants on how to collect their rewards, which they must do by the end of this month. Also, a Rick and Morty Announcer Pack was released a couple of weeks ago for the MOBA sequel (thanks VG247). Word is: "This pack replaces the Default announcer and Mega-Kills announcer with the interdimensional mischief of Adult Swim's Rick and Morty."

A new let's play video from Deus Ex: Human Revolution celebrates the 15th anniversary of the action/RPG franchise by allowing us to see it through the eyes of a couple of the developers from Eidos Montreal who helped craft the sequel (thanks PC Gamer). Word is: "In celebration of the Deus Ex franchise's 15th anniversary, Jean- François Dugas (Executive Game Director) and Jonathan Jacques-Belletête (Executive Art Director), take a trip down memory lane while playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution."

• StarCraft II Legacy of the Void Beta Patch 2.5.5.
• TERA Patch 34.07. Thanks Ten Ton Hammer.

• Mad Squad - physics-based Co-op Action-Platformer by Reinhard Zach — Kickstarter. Now offers a new cinematic trailer showing a makeover.

• Watch the August Heroes of the Storm Open and Win.
• Announcing the Winner of the #illgottengains Rockstar Editor Contest.
• Yes, eSports is a global phenomenon, and no, it’s not going away.

• Fallout boy: Bethesda's Pete Hines on the biggest 12 months in the publisher's history - MCV.
• Interview with a Capcom star - Dan Southworth.

• Cult PC Sim Kerbal Space Program Set For Xbox One Release.
• Clash Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• Adventures Of Pip Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• Bridge Constructor Is Now Available For Xbox One.

• League of Legends Free Limited Mobile Game.
• PopWatch! on the App Store on iTunes.

• Beginning September 1, 2015, Amazon no longer accepts Flash ads on Amazon.com. Thanks HARDOCP.

• The Extreme Cases Where A NVIDIA GTX 950 Can Outperform An AMD R9 Fury On Linux OpenGL.
• FLIR One, round two- The thermal imaging camera drops $100, gets a new shape.

• NSA preps quantum-resistant algorithms to head off crypto-apocalypse.
• Forget license plate readers on police cars, how about on garbage trucks?
• PINs easily pinched with iPhone-attached thermal imaging kit.
• Spotify now officially even worse than the NSA.

• After guilty plea, former Redflex CEO could face up to five years in prison.
• Ashley Madison wide open to UK privacy lawsuits, claim lawyers. Strange way to fight for your privacy.

• Gryphon Knight Epic on GameWatcher.
• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III on Just Adventure.
• Shadowrun: Hong Kong on Angry Centaur Gaming and Rock, Paper, Shotgun (thanks nin).

• ASUS GTX 950 Strix on Babeltechreviews, LAN OC, and Legit Reviews.
• BIOSTAR N3150NH ITX Motherboard on Mad Shrimps.
• Cougar QBX Mini-ITX Gaming Chassis on eTeknix.
• Fractal Design Integra M 750W Power Supply on pcGameware.
• Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 980 4GB Ultra on Nikk Tech.
• LEPA Lenyx LPC801A-B Full-Tower Chassis on TweakTown.
• MSI GTX 950 Gaming 2G Video Card on Modders-Inc.
• Netis PL7500 Kit AV500 Powerline Adapter Kit on eTeknix.
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 on eTeknix, Legion Hardware, and TechSpot.
• Sapphire Tri-X R9 390X 8GB CrossfireX on eTeknix.
• SilverStone SX600-G SFX PSU on AnandTech.

• Game Theory: The Assassin's Creed Shared Universe Conspiracy…
• Good Game Spawn Point - Series 6 Episode 27. Thanks Ant
• Real-Life Chatroulette FPS…

I mentioned the French flag that I noticed flying near here just before Bastille Day, noting it appeared at least a day before the actual holiday. It may be that it was unrelated, because a month later, it's still out there standing proudly. It may be out there all year, and I just never noticed it before. Well, I always say you should let your freak flag fly, so why shouldn't that apply to your French flag too? Think I'll have some French fries to show my support.

French Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Avoid. Minecaves. Mafia Battle.
Stories:	Deez Nuts trails Trump in NC polling. Trail? The Boeing 747 is heading for retirement. Always felt safest in a 747. Thanks Slashdot.
Science:	What Would Happen if a Massive Solar Storm Hit the Earth? Thanks KXmode Working longer hours increases stroke risk, major study finds. Sleep Drug Modafinil Affirmed by Scientists as a Safe and Effective Brain Booster. Thanks JDreyer. Research shows that comet impacts may have led to life on Earth -- and perhaps elsewhere.
Media:	Fungus: The Plastic of the Future. Dismaland: Banksy's Disneyland-Inspired Theme Park. The crappiest place on earth! This is commercially available without a license.
Auctions:	'Simpsons' Memorabilia to Be Auctioned From Sam Simon Collection.